On a silver platter

The Fortune Cookie (in Spain, On a silver platter; in Latin America, For Money, Almost Anything) is a 1966 American film comedy directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as lead actors.

Plot

Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) is a CBS cameraman who is injured during a broadcast of a football game when Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich), a black player, bumps into him during a play at a Browns game at Cleveland Stadium. At Saint Mark's Hospital he is diagnosed with minor injuries, but his brother-in-law William H. & # 34;Whiplash Willie & # 34; Gingrich (Walter Matthau), a petty and conniving lawyer, takes advantage of an old accident he suffered as a child that caused him a spinal injury and convinces him to simulate a paralysis in his left leg and right hand, so that he can receive a compensation from the insurance company. Harry reluctantly agrees to the plan, in part because he is trying to win back the love of his ex-wife Sandy (Judi West), with whom he is still in love. The insurance company, aware of Whiplash Willie's sleight of hand, suspects the paralysis is fake, and lead investigator Chester Purkey (Cliff Osmond) begins playing cat and mouse with Willie and Harry, trying to catch him. using the 'paralyzed' limbs. On the other hand, Boom Boom feels responsible for Harry's situation, and visits him repeatedly to make himself available to him and somehow repair the damage caused. Harry, who sees how the situation is beginning to affect Boom Boom psychologically, whose performance on the field is down dramatically, blames himself for having accepted the trap proposed by his brother-in-law. Furthermore, he is sickened by the greed his ex-wife displays every time she visits him, and when Purkey, relentless in his quest to catch him in a wrong move, begins taunting Boom Boom and hurling racist insults, Harry stands up from the table. chair and hits him. An assistant to Purkey is filming the scene from a window in the building across the street and Harry, determined to finish it once and for all, advises him on the type of lens to use, lights up the room so that the filming is flawless, and punches again. again to Purkey, and then he begins to perform gymnastic exercises to prove that he is perfectly fit and has no injury. While Harry goes to find Boom Boom to tell him the truth, Willie tears up the severance check received, citing his disappointment at his client's actions, for which he is not responsible, and announces his intention to report the breach of privacy. of his client, the insults against the player.